"It seems to me," answered he, haughtily, "that thy word is not needed, since I have given mine. What does this mean?" They withdrew to a special chamber. "Dost thou know, lord," asked the excited priest, "what has happened, perhaps an hour since? Some young men attacked the worthy Sargon and clubbed him." "Who were they? Where did this happen?" "At the villa of a Phœnician priestess named Kama," answered Mentezufis, watching the face of the heir sharply. "Daring fellows," said the prince, shrugging his shoulders, "to attack such a stalwart man! I suppose that more than one bone was broken in that struggle." "But to attack an ambassador! Consider, worthy lord,--an ambassador protected by the majesty of Assyria and Egypt," said the priest. "Ho! ho!" laughed the prince. "Then King Assar sends ambassadors even to Phœnician dancers?" Mentezufis was confused. All at once he tapped his forehead, and cried out also, with laughter,-- "See, prince, what a simple man I am, unfamiliar with ceremonies. I forgot that Sargon, strolling about in the night near the house of a suspected woman, is not an ambassador, but an ordinary person." After a while he added,-- "In every case something evil has happened. Sargon may conceive a dislike for us." "Priest! O priest!" cried Rameses, shaking his head. "Thou hast forgotten this,--a thing of much more importance,--that Egypt has no need to fear or even care for the good or bad feeling toward her, not merely of Sargon, but King Assar." Mentezufis was so confused by the appositeness of the remark, that, instead of an answer, he bowed, muttering,-- "Prince, the gods have given thee the wisdom of high priests,--may their names be blessed! I wanted to issue an order to search for these insolents, but now I prefer to follow thy advice, for thou art a sage above sages. Tell me, therefore, lord, what I am to do with Sargon and those turbulent young people." "First of all, wait till morning. As a priest, thou knowest best that divine sleep often brings good counsel." "But if before morning I think out nothing?" "I will visit Sargon in every case, and try to efface that little accident from his memory." The priest took farewell of Rameses with marks of respect. On the way home, he pondered. "I will let the heart be torn out of my breast," thought he, "if the prince had to do with that business. He neither beat Sargon, nor persuaded another to beat him; he did not even know of the incident. Whoso judges an affair with such coolness and so pointedly cannot be a confederate. In that case I can begin an investigation, and if we do not mollify the shaggy barbarian I will deliver the disturbers to justice. Beautiful treaty of friendship between two states, which begins by insulting the ambassador!"